render from model in Rails 3

mymodel.rb

# yes, sometimes you need to do this. you get pilloried in a forum if you
# ask about it, though!

# this code taken from
# http://wholemeal.co.nz/blog/2011/04/05/rendering-from-a-model-in-rails-3/

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  # Use the my_models/_my_model.txt.erb view to render this object as a string
  def to_s
    ActionView::Base.new(Rails.configuration.paths.app.views.first).render(
      :partial => 'my_models/my_model', :format => :txt,
      :locals => { :my_model => self}
    )
  end
end

    ActionView::Base.new(
        Rails.configuration.paths["app/views"]).render(
        :partial => 'componenets/hello', :format => :txt, 
        :locals => { :my_model => self})

thanks also for that update @mikepence, very helpful.

Perfectly legit reasons to do this if, for example, you are having a delayed job send a mass email whose view your want to render using the data values at the time the emails are sent, NOT when the controller action queues the delayed job. (if it's a mass email, you do not want the emailer to have to re-render the same view 1000 times, so you have the MODEL method that the delayed job invokes do the rendering).

This doesn't work if you're using url helpers (root_path, foo_path, bar_url and such) in the view. Any thoughts on how to get it working?

any luck @mongrelion ? Having teh same problem with url helpers

@mongrelion figured it out just do:

    action_view = ActionView::Base.new(Rails.configuration.paths["app/views"].first)
    action_view.class_eval do 
        include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
    end

@mongrelion final solution for me:

   action_view = ActionView::Base.new(Rails.configuration.paths["app/views"])
    action_view.class_eval do 
        include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
        include ApplicationHelper

        def protect_against_forgery?
          false
        end
    end

THANK YOU, THANK YOU AND THANK YOU... I had tried many different variations and this is the first one that worked!

@nathanbertram Thank you.

Thanks Man! Very Help Me

Thanks buddy

I was doing this recently for injecting a view_context for an Rspec test. I was having issues with the URL helpers even though the default_url_options were set in config/environments/test.rb

ended up adding to the class_eval

action_view.class_eval do 
  include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
  def default_url_options
    { :host => "example.com" }
  end
  # ...
end

Worked for me.. might possibly help others :)

Excellent! Thank you!
I wonder, though, how fast is this, since we know that rails rendering a view can be slow.
Is there a way to embed this model rendering via helper?